Hot on the heels of the announcement of its new toy, Surface, Microsoft has bought manufacturer of large touch displays Perceptive Pixel.

Microsoft did not say much of the terms of the acquisition. However, the company said that the purchase should offer up new possibilities for its vendor partners. Namely, Microsoft’s president of the office division Kurt DelBene has revealed that the large touch displays will be combined with OEM hardware to make “powerful Windows 8-based PCS”.

Naturally, with the announcement of Surface, the time is ripe to get the rumor mill up and running, and quite rightfully so. Despite what Microsoft would have the public think, announcing Surface and buying a large touch display maker afterwards suggests we may see a mega-Surface or something along those lines.

Seeing as how Microsoft primarily focused on software solutions, the purchase will definitely make its job easier, at least on the touch panel front. The deal is pending regulatory approval.

English hotel Indigo has decided to replace its Bibles with Kindles and has even received kind words of support from Gideons International, the deliverers of Bibles worldwide.

So, the traditional version of Bible will get the boot and the holy text will be loaded onto Kindle Touch devices strapped with Wi-Fi. Additionally, guests will be treated to up to $8 worth of religious texts for free, but only in the first two weeks of the program.

Guests will be able to purchase other books in Amazon's store, not necessarily from the fantasy genre. The additional titles will be synced to their account and the book will only be readable during their stay.

The hotel expects the Kindles to be handled just like the rest of its stuff, such as towels and soaps. So, if its Kindle goes missing, it will be charged to the room.

Seeing as how printing and distributing a Bible costs $5 and a 6-inch Kindle Touch costs $139, it will not come cheap. In fact, purchasing a Kindle Touch for each of the 148 rooms adds up to $20,572. Some would argue that the same cash could theoretically feed many hungry children in third world countries, but who are we to complain.

Gideons spokesperson Ken Stephens said: "Anything to put the Bible in people's hands is a good thing". However, he added that the paper version remains the best for what Gideons do.

Apple’s iPhone and iPad shipments of touch screen displays has caused the market for touch controller integrated circuits (ICs) to almost triple in size during a five year span.

According to an IHS iSuppli Display Electronics topical report shipments of touch controller ICs are set to reach 2.4 billion units in 2015, up from 865 million in 2010. This year alone, shipments will surge 28 percent to 1.7 billion units, with strong double-digit growth projected for the next two years before the rate of expansion slows slightly in 2015.

Randy Lawson, principal analyst for display & consumer electronics at his said the expansion in touch controller IC shipments is due to the growing number of devices that employ touch technology. He said that Apple almost single-handedly ignited the market for touch in 2007 when it introduced the iPhone.

iPhone featured a multi-touch screen based on a projected capacitive touch technology. Since the appearance of the iPhone, many other smartphone manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon by deploying sophisticated touch sensors for their products.

While a number of sources are claiming that the next Xbox (or the Xbox 720 if you will) has new controllers that will feature color touch screens as well as directional sound and a finger tracking Kinect-like technology. While it all makes for good copy, sources tell us that this is only something that Microsoft is experimenting with, and at least right now it does not know if it will be something to be implemented into the final product design.

Our sources also tell us that Microsoft has three major concerns about it at the moment: it is big, it is pretty heavy, and it will be expensive to produce. This is not to mention the fact that the level of usefulness also has been questioned. This isn’t to say the touchscreen would not be useful, but the real question is whether the usefulness of the device is in the right direction.

Despite the talk of the controller including a touchscreen, Microsoft has apparently been looking at tablets as one possible way that they could get a touchscreen-type input device. According to sources, the tablet device could be an optional offering where Microsoft might just offer compatibility with the tablet device being optional. This may be the option that Microsoft will use to keep the cost down.

Sources continue to tell us that while the hardware has been confirmed, there are still many things that remain for the company to sort out. Microsoft is rumored to be talking with a number of developers to receive additional input before making its final decisions.

It has been reported that tablets will remain the most dominant of touch-devices throughout 2012. Apparently, industry sources reckon that 10.1-inch and smaller devices will rake in the most dough.

Samsung, HTC, Asus and Sony are just some of the names that are expected to launch new models in 2012. HP and RIM, on the other hand, are allegedly yet to decide whether it’s worth going for this market after having flopped with their devices earlier. Of course, Apple will continue to dominate the market throughout 2012.

It is said that overall tablet shipments should hit 100 million in 2012, compared to 60 million in 2011. Couple that with new ARM chips, Medfield, Android 4.0, future upgrades thereof and Windows 8 at the end of 2012, and we’ve got an interesting year in tablets ahead of us.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has once again denied Apple’s trademark on the term multi-touch.

Apple originally applied for the trademark back in January 2007, when it launched the iPhone, but the application was unsuccessful. The appeal didn’t have much luck either.

The appeal was dismissed as the trademark attorney thinks the term multitouch is pretty much generic by now. It was concluded that the term does not only identify the technology underneath, but rather describes a method of usage of a device.

The Trademark Office's statement reads:”We now consider whether applicant has submitted sufficient evidence to establish acquired distinctiveness of this highly descriptive term. There is a list of items that can determine if a mark has "acquired distinctiveness", including sales success, length and exclusivity of use, and advertising expenditures.”

Well, they can always try to trademark the sense of touch, if the Vatican doesn't beat them to it.

Mobile phone maker Samsung has worked out that it can copy Apple by flogging a phoneless version of its Galaxy mobile to those who just want the player and games.

Apple has made a killing on its iPod touch, which is basically an iPhone which can't drop connections because it never tried to make any in the first place. Apparently the people at Samsung think that the idea is pretty good as it is going to release a new Galaxy Player at CES.

According to the Samsung Hub fanblog the new music player will be based on the company's Galaxy S smartphone, and will run Google's Android OS 2.2 Froyo. It will include a front facing VGA camera, a rear 3.2 megapixel camera, and come in 8, 16, and 32GB versions.

While it has not got the software that the iPod touch has, a Galaxy player hopes use all its Android apps and copy Apple's strategy of shoring up the iPhone platform by selling a music player that is almost functionally identical other than doing anything useful like the ability call someone.

Clearly something like that is largely useless when you can get a nice MP3 player much cheaper, and without the marketing power of Jobs, along with the gross stupidity of Apple fanboys, we can't think that Android fans are likely to fall for it.

Toshiba will release by year-end a tablet computer that runs on Android. Dubbed the Folio 100 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Toshiba is not sure if it will flog it in the US or Japan.

"The market for tablet devices like the iPad is attracting a lot of consumer attention," said the Toshiba spokeswoman and its worth noting that the Folio 100 is not Toshiba's first tablet. The outfit has a touch-screen tablet called the JournE Touch which started selling in March. The JournE Touch runs on Microsoft Windows but it seems that Toshiba has ditched that in favour of Android.

The Folio 100 is equipped with a 10.1-inch multi-touch display and an embedded webcam. It will support Adobe Flash for viewing videos on the Internet.

Toshiba expects the model that can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi networks to sell for 399 euros. The company has yet to decide when it will launch another model with 3G connectivity.

With the announcement that NHL 2K11 would be taking the year off on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and the studio instead focusing all of its efforts on a Wii only release; we were surprised to learn that the studio had something else planned. For the first time ever, a licensed NHL hockey title will be coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch with the release of NHL 2K11 for the platform.

The decision to try something different with the release of NHL 2K11 on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform wasn’t a difficult one for the studio. With the number of NHL fans that own these devices and the continued strong sales of software on this platform, it was time to see what kind of success on this platform was possible.

The game features a brand new engine and control scheme designed from the ground up for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and it looks to capture all of the fun and excitement of NHL Hockey on these portable devices. The game will provide a number of play modes, as well as the ability for players to play an entire season. The game will feature roster updates throughout the NHL season.

The NHL 2K11 release for the iPhone/iPod Touch is set to arrive later today in the iTunes App Store. The game will be sold for $1.99 during the first week of release, with the price to increase later to its regular price. With this release, 2K Sports gets the jump on competitor, Electronic Arts, who has controlled the video game hockey market with its NHL series. EA will be bringing its first NHL title to the Wii this year, but as of yet has not made the leap to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform with an NHL offering.

In the absence of any thing resembling promotion from Apple, the IT press has had to look in rubbish bins to find news of coming hardware. In this case the rubbish bin, an update to iOS4.1 beta, has revealed a new iPod touch is in the works.

iOS 4.1b3 includes three new “Configuration Descriptors” within its USB configuration files that list Apple as its maker. Within the code there is a fourth-generation iPod touch which is called the “iPod 4.1. If Apple was going to simply revise the iPod touch’s existing design it would be called the iPod 3.2.

To earn a 4.1 handle, the iPod would need to have some major hardware changes. Word on the street suggests that it would be like the slim but broken iPhone 4 with dual cameras, FaceTime support, Apple’s A4 processor and Retina display.

There is also reference to “iProd 2.1? which is a second-generation iPad. The original iPad had a configuration descriptor of iProd 1.1 prior to its announcement. The other strange reference is to “unknownHardware” with a unique Apple product ID of 20547. We guess this will be the new iOS-powered iTV.